[road trip] el torito nick taqueria / anaheim – orange county, ca

For our last venture out before heading back to San Diego, we tried to go to a place I scouted out called Taqueria 2 Guys. Sadly, they were closed for some reason though their website said they should be open. I guess they were closed for the Labor Day holiday… even though it wasn’t actually Labor Day yet? We decided to instead go to a place we passed by on the way in.

Jake snapped a photo of the salsa bar for me. It was too hot to eat inside of the non-air conditioned restaurant.

We sat in the one good table (one table was in the sun and the other tables were strangely warped). Here’s some salsa. Isn’t this an exciting photo?

We got three kinds of meats to try and got three of each one. One of each!

[carnitas tacos – $1.25 each]

The carnitas were probably my least favorite. They were really dry and super salty – almost like eating jerky in a taco. But saltier. Jerky is not meant for tacos.

[carne asada tacos – $1.25 each]

The carne asada tacos also suffered the fate of being incredibly dry and had almost no taste and flavor to them. At least they weren’t super salty, I guess…

[al pastor tacos]

The al pastor tacos were the best of this bunch. They were the ones one that were not incredibly super Sahara Desert-like dry and had a little bit of tenderness to them. It had more flavor and spice that the other two, but it was still just kind of “meh”.

[refried beans]

The refried beans were also nothing to really sing about. All in all it was a pretty disappointing meal. Sometimes trying new little places really turns out for the best, yielding amazing results… and other times, you hit up places that make you question if you should take chances like that. While this wasn’t the best meal, I was still happy to be with Jake and his son that day so it was still a plus. Another awesome road trip is in the books! I’ll probably just block this place from my memory.

El Torito Nick Taqueria
1431 W Warner Ave
Santa Ana, CA 92704

Related

Author: Mary

Mary is a San Diego native and has been a food blogger for 11+ years. She is an avid reader, a lover of puppies, and loves trying new food. Foods she loves: sweets, peanut butter, pasta, Triscuit crackers with cream cheese, and extra nuts on top of her sundaes. Food she dislikes: pickles, really spicy food, runny eggs, olives, and too much arugula.